237th Birthday Reflections

I have spent the summer reading the entire syllabus of Western Civilization from 1740-present this summer, and it turns out that there is a lot about politics and governments that I really do not know.  That revelation comes as no surprise.  I took one history course in college--which was an American History course with the Pullitzer Prize winning Professor Gordon Wood.  I learned a lot, but not about European history, and we read none of the classics in political theory.  I took a total of three political science course, but all three of them were related to the U.S. Supreme Court and the rule of law in the United States--again, wonderfully taught courses where I learned an awful lot, but the did not educate me in how we got to the democracy that we have today.

This summer I have been reading some of the great and good (and occasionally terrible) political theorists that have endured since the Age of Enlightenment, and now I realize just how lucky we have beena s a nation to have begun as a democracy.  The pathway from absolutist monarchy to liberal democracy is one that is often fraught with difficulties that take generations, if not centuries to sort out.  Look at the French.  The outcome of the revolution was still playing out in the 20th century, despite happening in the 18th century.  That is a long gestation for change.  So this Independence Day I am celebrating that we managed to get it right the first time, or at least close enough that with a modification here and there, it continues to work for us all these many years later.